We`re constantly bombarded with the message that thin is in, and, we are told, shedding a few extra pounds means we would look better, feel better and live longer. The message has been taken to heart: At any given time, 65 million of us are dieting. The results of this massive weight reduction effort, however, are depressing.
Study after study has shown that within a year, 90 percent to 95 percent of dieters are back to their original weight. In fact, many have gained back not only the pounds lost, but a few extra as well.
Renewed determination brings on the next bout of dieting, which also results in additional weight gain. This happens so frequently that the term
”yo-yo dieting” is now used to describe the phenomenon.
Today, some health professionals are questioning whether the struggle to lose a few pounds, only to gain them back, is wise.
Dr. David Garner, professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University, is one who believes that the current methods of treating obesity do more harm than good.
In a talk at a recent meeting of the American Dietetic Association in Dallas, Garner said current failure rates make it difficult to find any scientific justification for the continued use of diet to address obesity.
”What level of proof is required before we abandon the treatment?” he asked.
According to Garner, a great deal of evidence suggests that maintenance of high but stable weight is safer than weight fluctuation, perhaps safer even than weight reduction. The reasons he put forth include:
– Lowered caloric requirements. In the far distant past, when the threat of starvation was very real, humans developed the ability to conserve calories when they were scarce. We still retain this mechanism, which causes body metabolism to slow down when less food is eaten for a period of time. This accounts for the ”plateau” that many dieters experience a few weeks after they begin a weight reduction regimen.
When dieters return to former eating habits, this hoarding of calories continues for as long as two more years, causing the body to accumulate more excess poundage. In other words, dieting may actually contribute to obesity in the long run.
– High rates of binge eating. According to Dr. Kenneth Goodrick of the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, up to 35 percent of the obese population suffers from binge eating when dieting is attempted. Goodrick, who also spoke at the Dallas meeting, described this ”non-purging bulimia” as a state in which people eat large quantities of food two or more times a week, feel they lack control over these binges, and are constantly concerned with body shape and weight. After periods of binge eating, they diet to lose the extra weight, then begin to binge again, thus embarking on a course of yo-yo dieting.
– Adverse psychological effects. For obese people caught in dieting cycles, research has identified a number of negative emotional states such as stress, frustration, rejection, depression, impaired concentration, preoccupation with food and weight, and self-blame. ”The people who are successful in weight reduction credit the program they followed, those who are failures blame themselves,” said Goodrick. And each renewed effort to lose weight reinforces the feelings of inadequacy to deal with the problem.
– Negative health benefits. A study at Yale University involving premenopausal women suggests that repeated bouts of weight cycling may promote a change in the way body fat is distributed, with more fat being deposited in the abdominal area with each successive regain of weight. This increased abdominal fat in turn is linked to higher rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
– Serious eating disorders. One of the few groups who are actually successful in terms of sustained weight loss is that with the eating disorders anorexia nervosa (self-starvation to the point of emaciation) and bulimia
(eating immense quantities of food followed by induced vomiting). However, the high price of these worst-case scenarios is a devastating combination of serious emotional and physical problems, and even death.
Do these negative factors mean that overweight people should abandon all efforts at controlling their diet?
Not at all, said Goodrick. But, rather than thinking in terms of ”diet” and subjecting oneself to continual bouts of weight cycling, he suggests the following guidelines for developing a healthier lifestyle:
1. Reduce the amount of fat in your diet rather than the number of calories. Goodrick explains that when eating is deliberately restricted, the body takes over and demands more food, and this is why diets fail. (He draws the parallel of trying to hold your breath-eventually your body insists that you breathe.) On the other hand, if the usual amounts of food are consumed, but fat is reduced, this automatically lowers caloric intake. Several recent studies confirm that limiting fat intake to 20 percent to 25 percent of calories instead of the 35 percent that most Americans now eat does indeed lead to weight loss.
2. Normalize your eating patterns. Eat three to five meals a day, with one or two snacks. Although this may cause a weight gain initially, it will eventually regulate blood sugar levels, reduce the constant urge to eat and end the battle with food.
3. Make very gradual changes toward a healthier lifestyle-begin to exercise and reduce the fat in your diet gradually. At the most, plan on losing a pound a week. Gradual changes become habits as opposed to ”diets”
that are as easy to go off as they are to begin.
4. Set a realistic weight goal. Goodrick feels that this is usually higher than weight tables labeled ”ideal” or ”desirable.” Genetic makeup determines your body type, and setting unrealistic goals for thinness just sets you up for failure.
5. Seek peer support. Instead of trying to do it all yourself, enlist the help of family and friends. And develop new goals for what is really important in life-something other than a constant combat with food.
